Vehicle location technology has made significant advances. Customers routinely rely on global positioning systems (GPS) for in-car navigation and increasingly for finding locations of destinations. Despite the increased use of GPS technologies, it cannot address all of the vehicle location needs. One such need wherein GPS technology falls short is the locating of a parked vehicle from a remote location.
Virtually every car user has encountered this dilemma. At a mall, an airport parking lot, a concert, or even work, when a driver attempts to return to the vehicle the precise location cannot be remembered. Handheld GPS devices would provide an incredibly accurate and convenient methodology for locating the parked vehicle. At present, however, GPS technologies have drawbacks that render them undesirable especially to integration into portable key-fobs. GPS technology is often very expensive and as such may not be considered cost effective. Furthermore, present GPS designs often require a significant amount of PCB space which results in an oversized transmitter. In addition, GPS technologies require significant current which prevent their integration into standard key-fobs.
It would be advantageous to have a cost effective and simple vehicle location device that could be integrated into existing remote keyless entry systems. It would be further advantageous for such a system to be small, cost effective, and capable of sharing a key-fob with a remote keyless entry transmitter.